Pixie and the girls are staying a mile up the road and are currently enjoying the help of the Brides by the Sea dedicated hair and make-up team before being whisked over by Keef in the Brides Go Wild bus. Thanks to their light airbrush foundation, and deftness with the hair tongs, the make-up team are legendary across the county for making brides and their parties into the most fabulous versions of themselves, with a look that will last all day.
Meanwhile, Poppy and Immie and the rest of the Daisy Hill gang, have been putting in the final touches at the castle and checking the bedrooms, welcoming the guests, and directing them through to the spacious ground-floor room where the ceremony is going to be. The right entrance music is ready to go, and after that there’s a day-long playlist compiled by Nic. There are tall pots all around the edge of the room with pink and white and purple sweet peas and bright pink cosmos and blue cornflowers and vibrant orange marigolds and larkspur spilling out of them, all from Lily’s garden at Rose Hill Manor.
Whatever Nic might once have said about chair covers, the folding chairs borrowed from the manor’s wedding store are looking very well-dressed. The simple cream silk covers with chiffon bows that are lighter than air look gorgeously understated and are a perfect contrast for the rugged bare stone walls of the castle. And mostly they’re already filled with waiting guests, chattering excitedly, standing up to hug each other or wave as new ones arrive. I have to say, every second word I overhear is probablycastle.
Due to Pixie’s preference for a relaxed day, and the number of wheelchairs coming, rather than rows we’ve set the seats out in clusters for guests to arrange themselves, with the aisle marked with smaller pots with the same tumbling masses of colourful flowers as the big pots around the edge. The ever present three-foot-high Brides by the Sea letters spelling outloveare propped up by the monumental stone fireplace, and next to that, at Nic’s request, Merwyn is curled up on his best blue velvet cushion with the gold braid edging and he’s wearing his diamond studded collar.
At last we’re at the stage where everyone’s moving into their places for the ceremony. The registrars are standing together in a shaft of sunlight slicing the air from the small paned window, shuffling their papers for the fifty-seventh time. Ewan and Nic are at the right-hand side at the front too, sitting side by side, Nic flashing me a smile and a nervous thumbs up over his shoulder, grinning at his mum and a couple of grandmothers who I was hurriedly introduced to earlier as Nic helped them pull up their seats.
On the left-hand side at the front, there’s space for the basketball team to wheel themselves down the aisle ahead of Pixie and make a front row.
As I make my way back through the castle entrance hall, I can see the glasses lined up ready to be filled with their Mr & Mrs Three Kisses cocktails and my stomach is churning like a washing machine on a 1400 spin. If I were getting married myself, I think I’d be breathing more. As it is, I’m so nervous I’m not sure I’ve inhaled any air since I left the flat this morning.
Then I push my way through the monumental castle door, and I’m outside in the sun with the chattering cluster of friends-who-aren’t-bridesmaids, who, like me, are all here waiting for Pixie.
I smile at Holly, who’s got Rory behind her carrying her cameras. ‘You’re back again?’
She nods. ‘Just made it. The groomsmen coming in by boat wasn’t on my original schedule, but it was too good to miss. I’ll get Pixie arriving now, then we’ll head inside to catch her big entrance and the ceremony.’
And then there’s a scrunch of tyres on the gravel, and my van is sweeping in. Set off against the cream satin wedding ribbons, I’m falling in love with the paint colour all over again. Holly leans across to me and whispers. ‘This has worked out so well for all of us, yours is so much prettier than Casper’s.’
And then as Bill’s dad and Keef the Reef are opening the doors of the front seats, Pixie’s waving at us from the back.
Holly’s snapping away and then Keef and Bill’s dad go one on either side of Pixie and lift the chair, and a second later her wheels touch down on the ground.
Pixie’s sitting blinking, staring at the lovely façade, her eyes wide as she takes in the little windows and the towers at each end. ‘Oh, my days, it’s a real live castle, right by the sea.’
One of her bridesmaids laughs. ‘It’s better than any of the dream houses we send each other off Rightmove.’ Now they’re waiting in a row, I’m getting the full benefit of their dresses – all different, but all lovely bright flowery cotton prints.
Pixie’s sigh is dreamy as she turns to me. ‘Oh Milla, it’s beautiful …’
There’s a big lump in my throat as I take in the pleasure spreading across her face. Her dark hair falling across her shoulders, and the simple cream lace of her dress makes her look slender and more vulnerable than ever. ‘You’re beautiful too, Pixie.’
She murmurs. ‘Thank you for all of it, Milla. But especially for making me into a bride.’
As she holds out her arms towards me I dip down and give her some air kisses. ‘Hey, don’t smudge your lippy!’
As Pixie finally lets go of me, she’s tugging her dad’s sleeve. ‘Dad you really need to say hello to Milla. She’s the one who made this happen and, you know …’
‘Milla …’ When he turns to face me, I’m looking at Nic thirty years on, his dark hair shorter and threaded with silver, his face more lived in. Then his eyes go wide. ‘You’reNic’sMilla!’
Them accidentally thinking I’m any more than an employee is too complicated to explain right now. I jump forward and grab his hand. ‘Lovely to meet you, Pixie’s dad, and now, if Holly’s got all the pictures she needs, we really must be moving this on. Everyone’s waiting inside.’
As Holly snatches up her bag of cameras and dives ahead of us, Rafe appears in the open doorway raising his eyebrows and asking for bridesmaids.
Pixie’s calling to the women in the wheelchairs. ‘Okay, you guys, lead the way, we’ll follow.’ She takes a bag from Keef, balances it on her knee, and then with her dad walking beside her she wheels herself into the hall. She calls out to me. ‘You come too, Milla, I need you next.’
By the time I catch them up outside the ceremony room door, Poppy’s there resting a posy of flowers on the knees of each of the bridesmaids as they line up ready to roll in and down the aisle.
She wiggles her eyebrows at Pixie. ‘All ready?’
Pixie hisses. ‘Roll on through, ladies, let’s knock them out of the park.’ Then, as the music begins, she turns to me and hands me her bag. ‘Okay, my sandals are in here, I want you to carry them, and push my chair.’
Poppy flashes me a nod from where she’s guiding the line of bridesmaids onto the aisle. But it’s one of those moments where I already know – on the day, whatever they say, the bride’s always right.
I’m already tapping my feet, thinking what an apt choiceAll You Need Is Loveis for the entrance music. I’m also saying a silent thank you to my mum reclining on her fluffy cloud above the castle roof for getting it right this time. I’m lining myself up to hold the wheelchair handles, bracing myself to push, to keep in step with Pixie’s dad, when there’s a lurch, and suddenly the chair in front of me is empty. As my heart drops I let out a cry. ‘Pixie, are you okay?’
For a moment I close my eyes really tight and don’t dare to open them. Brides faint, brides fall. Pixie sliding out of her chair would be exactly the kind of calamity I’m expecting here. So when I finally force myself to open them I’m expecting to see her crumpled in a white lacy heap on the floor. But instead she’s hanging onto her dad’s arm, and – what the eff! She’s flaming wellstanding up!
